Obama Produces His Birth Certificate

President Obama released his full form birth certificate yesterday.

Most Americans already knew what it showed, that he was born in Honolulu, Hawaii.

But, the people who first raised the issue are still not so sure. These birthers now want to verify that the certificate is not a forgery, that it is an exact copy of the original, and so forth. This is partly because the certificate made available yesterday was a pdf file and not a paper copy, although a congressperson has said that that she saw the original copy and felt the raised seal marks of the State of Hawaii.  A Texas birther has raised the question whether Obama was a dual-citizen of the US and Kenya at birth, and whether that might in itself invalidate him under the Constitution, which says “natural born” citizens only may be President. The argument here, I suppose, is that he would have had to choose his country of citizenship at age 18, and thus, was not really a full citizen when he was born.

As we can see, the issue is not going away.

What amazed me yesterday was the President’s statement that “we have better things to do and should stop this silliness.”

I suggest that it is he who behaved in a silly manner, letting the issue become major - until half of Republicans and one-third of Independents believe he is not American and therefore not eligible to be President.

President Obama could have put the question to rest long ago, years before it became an issue of critical importance to his re-election effort. It would have been easy to follow in the footsteps of former presidential candidates and simply make available his birth certificate during the 2008 campaign.

He didn’t do that. Instead, he shadow-boxed with the issue and its supporters until he was boxed into showing the certificate.

Mr. President, that is no way to make Americans believe you are honestly telling everything you know about your birth facts.